Was it you who paid something off and had an extra hundred-something dollars a month you wanted to invest? If it was you, please get the latest (2003) edition of this book:
by Burton G. Malkiel.
While I’m not a finance person, my training in econ. suggests to me that this is a damn good book. Check it out. The last section has time sensitive information, that’s why I’m recommending the 2003 edition.
I was reading A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market by John Allen Paulos (another good book) and he mentioned that Malkiel’s arguments for the (semi-strong) efficient market hypothesis are hard to ignore. So I went to the library and they had it. It starts by disabusing the reader of the belief that one can really beat the market. (Unfortunately he doesn’t tell the story of The Royal Head-Flipper when discussing fund managers.) Then it gets into specific info for investing according to your age and level of risk aversion. Then it gets into specific suggestions for things that won’t let you beat the market, but will hopefully keep you from getting clobbered.
Check it out.